10.12.2016

First up, we should point you in the direction of Todd Stevens article today over at StarCityGames, where he makes some Bold Predictions for Pro Tour Kaladesh. The TL/DR essentially is that although Smuggler's Copter has been one helluva card which dominated the first few weeks of the new standard format, the likelihood that the early success of this may not carry through as players bring on more sideboard hate or adjust strategies. The adjusted strategy may take the form of a Humans-based decklist. Good read and here at MTG Realm, we've already tuned a list with Thalia's Lieutenant and friends to (hopefully) unseat the Copter as the most successful list.

Righto - on to the title of today's post - Vraska Unseen.

If you are not quite getting why we are writing about this, then we strongly suggest popping on over to WotC staffer's Magic Story post today on the Wizards article page here.

Again, another great read. The big twist for us today was the brief sideline from the Kaldesh storyline into Ravnica where Jace meets Ral Zarek. Ral has a rather interesting and perhaps important report for Jace regarding Project Lightning Bug, a device that Ral (and the Izzet build team) designed that would deliver a small energetic pulse whenever it experienced a discontinuity, such as a planeswalk. Here is the interaction -

"The detectors still trigger when someone planeswalks. I glance over the results from time to time, but mostly I keep them hidden from Niv-Mizzet and most of my guild. I reached out when I saw Vraska's planeswalk."

Jace was deeply un-thrilled to hear the gorgon's name.

"She left Ravnica," Ral thought, "with no destination."

"No destination?"

"She didn't planeswalk to a plane. Only from one."

"That doesn't make sense."

"Exactly."

"A flaw in the detectors?"

Ral gave an impatient flick of his hand. "The experiment performed perfectly. The pattern of the departure was authentic, but the endpoint recorded as anomalous. Vraska hasn't been seen since. It's like she planeswalked into a void."

Dang. Just where did the Gorgon go ?

She could be lost in the Blind Eternities, or perhaps landed on Amonkhet (the next very kewl set) where perhaps Nicol Bolas has cast some dark spell to obfuscate the destination. Anywhoos, rather ironic that she is known as the 'unseen'.